This short film, taken from the feature La Folle de Toujane, brings to the foreground a political event almost separate from its main storyline. René Vautier plays a “committed” director-producer who has just witnessed the brutal beating of an “Arab” by the police in the street, right in front of the café where he's having lunch. The scene deeply shocks him; he doesn't react in the moment, but promises himself he will one day make a film about what he saw. This scene, which refers to the massacre of Algerians in Paris (October 17, 1961), powerfully symbolizes the importation of the criminal mindset that fueled the French army’s intervention in Algeria. It reminds us of the reality of extreme violence, still present in collective memory and yet never acknowledged by a France that continues to deny its responsibility. A denunciation of the self-censorship of French filmmakers in the 1960s and ’70s when facing the reality of state racism.

At the award ceremony for the Collar of the Hermine in Pontivy in September 2000, René Vautier was confronted by Claudine Dupont-Tingaud, a former regional councilor for the National Front and ex-OAS activist. With sharp wit and humor, Vautier tore apart her arguments, and in the end, she walked out of the room under a chorus of boos from the audience.